


Okay

by blutopaz15



Series: Post S3 Fics [1]
Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Crying, Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, Fluff, Hugs, Love, Mild Hurt/Comfort, One Shot, Post S3, Rayllum, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:13:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27252487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blutopaz15/pseuds/blutopaz15
Summary: “She'd jumped at Callum's hand on her elbow before he pulled her sleepy form into his arms and whispered to her that there was a bed and a change of clothes waiting for her. She'd started to protest, but the immediate yawn that left her lips had his hands on her back, gently pushing her by the shoulders down the hall in the appropriate direction. He'd kissed her forehead after their quiet, starry-eyed I-love-yous at the door. She had to admit that she was a little grateful for his insistence that she rest. Logically, she'd known she needed it, but something about being told to sleep let her give herself permission to actually relax, to the point that she was so relaxed now that she didn’t care to get up to open the door. Instead, she lazily called out, pressing back against the pillow with a tired sigh.”
Relationships: Callum & Rayla (The Dragon Prince), Callum/Rayla (The Dragon Prince), Rayllum - Relationship
Series: Post S3 Fics [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2018518
Comments: 18
Kudos: 117





	Okay

**Author's Note:**

> This has been my brain for SO. LONG. Also, I know that a million version of this already exist but oh well! *shrug*
> 
> I had a lot of little snippets of conversation written for a while but it took me a while to thread them all together...not sure if I’m 100% satisfied with how this turned out but I thought I’d share the Rayllum snuggles with y’all anyway!!

Rayla flinched awake and, by the time her head caught up with her hand, an open blade was already pointed toward the door. She exhaled just as quickly as she had inhaled as awareness came flooding back and her alarm dissipated. She remembered that the knock at the door could have come from several acceptable sources...some still strange and new and unfamiliar, but all friendly. No need to panic. She shook her head quickly back and forth, casting off the last of her panic, and closed her weapon, placing it back on the bedside table. As quickly as the exhaustion had vanished, it returned.

Practically as soon as the sun had gone down, she'd reluctantly allowed herself to be escorted to one of the few _real_ bedrooms at the Storm Spire at Callum's insistence. Excitement and relief and the full moon had made for a restless night after the battle, and, as he'd pointed out, she'd only gotten maybe an hour's worth of sleep, propped up back to back against him just before dawn. When he'd found her last night, she'd been leaned against the archway, fondly watching Zym and Ezran play as Queen Zubeia looked on, and she'd started to doze off against the cool stone. She'd jumped at Callum's hand on her elbow before he pulled her sleepy form into his arms and whispered to her that there was a bed and a change of clothes waiting for her. She'd started to protest, but the immediate yawn that left her lips had his hands on her back, gently pushing her by the shoulders down the hall in the appropriate direction. He'd kissed her forehead after their quiet, starry-eyed I-love-yous at the door. She had to admit that she was a little grateful for his insistence that she rest. Logically, she'd known she needed it, but something about being _told_ to sleep let her give herself permission to actually relax, to the point that she was so relaxed now that she didn’t care to get up to open the door. Instead, she lazily called out, pressing back against the pillow with a tired sigh.

"What?"

Hearing the door creak open, she looked at the dark entryway to her room and was comforted to see the Callum's outline there. Satisfied in knowing that it was just her sweet human prince knocking at her door, she blinked her eyes shut again and pressed the side of her face into her pillow. "Hey Callum," she yawned. From her pillow, she managed a weak smile in his direction that she imagined he likely couldn't see in the extremely dim light from the hall anyway.

"Hey," he whispered back, his shadow hesitating in the doorway.

"What's wrong?" She mumbled, opening a single eye to look at him. His arms seemed to be crossed, his shoulders bunched up tensely.

"Can...can I come in?" He asked, voice smaller than usual. Small, not just in volume but by some _other_ measure as well. She opened her eyes again and frowned, not out of displeasure, but rather in concern for the strange timbre in his voice. She sucked in another deep breath of air, trying to properly rouse herself.

"Yeah," she yawned again almost as soon as she spoke, leaning up on an elbow in the process. Her eyelids remained heavy as she watched him press his body backwards to gently close the large stone door behind him. The only light in the room now was cast across the end of her bed from the bright newly waning moon that loomed outside. He stepped towards her, making to sit at the edge of her bed, and her heart broke when the dim light streaking across his cheeks revealed that he'd been crying.

"Hey..." she crooned, seeing the line of moisture down his cheeks that shone in the moonlight and noticing the tiny beads of tears that threatened to spill from his eyes. She straightened up fully as he sat and immediately reached a hand to his cheek to trace one of the paths of his tears with her thumb. He leaned against her hand when she made contact and she felt her own eyes prick with the sting of tears watching his tears start to fall in earnest.

"S-sorry," he said, covering his now-closed eyes with a hand. She saw how the tears leaked down from his eyes to trail to his chin. The droplets hesitated there before falling to the blanket, marking it in small, wet splotches.

"No, no, don't be." Her hand relocated from his cheek to his shoulder, where she rubbed her thumb in an effort to comfort him. "What's wrong?" She repeated her question from a moment ago.

"I...I _tried_ to sleep, Rayla," he said miserably, the tears continuing to flow, more steadily now. In the dim light, she could just barely make out how his nose reddened as he cried

"Didn't go so well, huh?" She squeezed his shoulder, trying to infuse a little levity into her tone. She had pulled one corner of her mouth up into a small smile when he removed the hand from his eyes, but her face quickly fell when his eyes, emerald and shiny with tears, met her gaze.

"No." He said, absolutely crumbling. His shoulders slumped before starting to shake with his barely-controlled sobs. She threw off her blanket to scoot closer and reached for him, threading one arm under his and around his back and the other over his opposite shoulder to squeeze him tightly against her as he cried.

"Oh, Callum..." she whispered, words muffled as she spoke into his soft, brown hair, still damp from, she assumed, a bath. She started to feel the warm moisture of his tears leaking through her nightshirt, on to her shoulder. She figured it must have been about this time the night before, too, that he'd last lost his composure. All last night, they'd excused themselves from conversation intermittently to lean against the walls, looking fondly at each other, joking and flirting and rolling their eyes at each other. Their I-love-yous had unleashed the floodgates of cheesy declarations of affection, but as soon as they were left alone for more than five or ten minutes, they'd become sentimental and weepy, grasping desperately at each other. She flashed back to being found collapsed in a corner with him last night by Ezran, Callum openly weeping against her shoulder. The tears fell in the same place tonight. "Please...please don't cry. Come here," she pleaded. 

She relinquished her hold around his body only to pull at his hands to drag him down next to where she'd been sleeping, laying him on his back. She settled her right hip next to him, her upper body stretched out across his. Her arms resumed their hold around him, one arm hooking into the space between his elbow and his waist and the other snaking around the back of his neck. She nuzzled into the crook of his neck and felt his hands settle around her waist, reciprocating her tight embrace. She frowned against the warm, soft skin of his neck when, instead of subsiding, his tears continued, making his chest shake even more with uneven breaths.

'I didn't mean to make you cry _more," s_ he said. Her intention to sound lighthearted failed in light of the pain his cries caused her. She couldn’t tell if he was chuckling through his tears, or if he was crying even harder now at this. She pursed her lips against his neck, laying a kiss there. "Do you want to tell me?" She asked, feeling his chest fill very deliberately with air beneath her, slower now, like he was trying to calm down. The slow breath came back out in shaky spurts of air.

"I...you were...I was...we kept falling." He stumbled over the words. The fingers that had been pressed against the back of his neck wandered to his forehead, brushing his hair to the side. "I just kept seeing you--" She cut him off, wanting to be able to comfort him without getting upset herself.

"I'm okay, Callum. I'm okay. You're okay." He nodded evenly, despite the ragged when he took in the next breath. Encouraged just slightly, she continued. She leaned her lips up towards his ear and continued to murmur in a low and comforting voice. "I'm here, Callum. And I'm okay. I'm right here. In your arms." She squeezed a little tighter around his torso as she reminded him of this. "And I'll stay here as long as you want, okay?"

"Okay," he repeated, exhaling shakily. She picked her head up to look at him, unwinding her arm from the crook of his elbow. She trailed a thumb slowly along each track of tears that slid out of his closed eyes, wiping the wetness to the side.

"I love you," she said when his eyes opened. She rested her hand fully against his cheek. "I love you, and I'm here." She repeated herself again now that she had his eyes looking unwaveringly in to hers.

"I love you too." He said, without the smile that he'd worn each time he'd said this over the past couple of days. Instead, he looked back at her with decidedly solemn intensity. She leaned her forehead against his, smiling reassuringly. Her brow was still contorted in concern, though.

"Everything is going to be okay, Callum." She felt his arms tighten around her waist again, pulling her impossibly closer, so she lowered herself back down to rest her head against his shoulder, careful to avoid poking him with her horns. "I'm okay. We're okay."

She repeated some of these brief, comforting phrases as she felt his breathing begin to settle completely. Her hand remained against his cheek, then wandered up with the clear purpose of continuing to brush his hair to the side and the clandestine purpose of feeling for more tears leaking from his eyes. His breath settled before the tears stopped. Absentmindedly, between strokes against his cheek, she twirled a lock of his hair between her fingers.

"Rayla?" His lips met her scalp along where her hair naturally parted as he waited for her response.

"Yeah?"

”Thank you.” A hand trailed up along her spine to rest against her shoulder blade. She leaned up to place a kiss against his neck again, her nose trailing along the warm skin there as she did. She didn't bother to respond aloud to his gratitude, partially because, in her mind, there was nothing _to_ thank her for...she couldn't imagine _not_ comforting him, knowing he was feeling this way...sobbing and red-faced and _upset_. She lingered there against his neck, breathing in his scent between tiny kisses. The hand that had been in his hair trailed down to his collarbone.

"You found new clothes, too," she muttered after a quiet moment, pulling at the orange fabric. She smiled when he moved to sit up, despite the fact that it interrupted their embrace, because it assured her that he really was done breaking her heart with his tears. For now, at least.

"Took a bath too! Smell!" He raised an armpit and she rolled her eyes. She reached up to pull his arm down, using the motion as leverage to sit up herself as well, keeping a hold of his hand once she was settled instead of letting go. She was pleased to find his hand warm, as always, and bare for once.

"I could tell, dummy," she grinned back at him, propping up a pillow to lean against. "It's not like I didn't _notice_ the stench before."

"Awww, and you hugged me anyway?" He leaned towards her, squeezing her hand and sporting a wide, cheesy grin, despite the lingering red puffiness around his eyes.

"Guess I like you or something." She brought her other hand across her body to poke him sharply in the side.

"Guess you must," Callum said, capturing the offending appendage in his. She accepted his control over her hand, and his fingers wandered to pull at the cuff of the comfortable shirt around her wrist.

"It's weird seeing you in different clothes,” he remarked. She looked down instinctively at what she wore and almost missed his glance towards her legs. 

"What?" She smirked, wondering if he'd dare. His eyes cut back towards her bare shins. Apparently, the answer was yes.

"...do you have four toes, too?" On instinct, she slapped a hand across his chest, and he laughed in response.

"Do you have _five_?" She retorted with a loud scoff, pursing her lips to prevent the smile from spreading. He rested an ankle against his opposite knee, bringing his foot (also bare, she noted) closer.

"Wanna count?" He asked, eyes shining mirthfully as he grinned. She rolled her eyes and pushed his foot, toes wriggling, away.

"You're lucky you're _cute."_ She tried to grumble the words, but she couldn't pass up the opportunity to try to see him blush with the compliment, so the words came out _fond_ instead. It occurred to her that, given the dramatics of their relationship so far, _cute_ had been reserved for her private thoughts concerning Callum thus far. She was pleased when she felt warmth on his cheek when she leaned in for a kiss. He started to stammer. "Lucky I love you, too," she whispered, continuing to tease. He turned to face her, noses slotted next to each others', foreheads leaned.

"Oh, I know _that_. I _am_ lucky." She liked how his voice had lowered as he said this. The volume, reduced from their teasing, was pleasant, but the pitch of his voice seemed to have lowered too. She wonder if he could sense how, when she blinked, her feelings shifted into deeper adoration.

"I do, you know. Love you a lot," she clarified softly, bringing her unoccupied hand to his cheek.

"I love you too, Rayla," he responded, voice still low and soft and sweet. His lips angled slightly towards hers, and she could swear they had brushed against hers ever so lightly as he asked: "Can I kiss you?"

With a sharp breath, she closed the short space between their lips and she felt how he was startled by her lack of verbal response in the way he had inhaled as their lips met. After the briefest moment, though, his lips moved against hers, pressing her lips between his tenderly. There was a new...or, well, _rare_ at least...focus on this connection. Not just kissing as a means of farewell or greeting or comfort or reassurance—though this certainly did comfort and reassure her. Just kissing. For it's own sake. Because they could. Because they wanted to, and more importantly, because _they both_ wanted to. And, just as deliberately as he kissed her, she kissed him...almost as deliberately as when they'd navigated effective mid-kiss head-tilting back in the Midnight Desert, noses bumping awkwardly multiple times, triggering fits of pink-cheeked laughter fueled by newfound love. They’d mostly figured it out.

They took turns (both then and now) in their brief kisses, each stumbling upon unexplored ways to mold their lips against each others'...new speeds and angles and pressures and...maybe more ways to breathe too would be good. As proven failures in mid-kiss breathing, they parted at last with tiny giggles just for each other to enjoy as they gasped for air. Pleased and sleepy, Rayla cuddled up against Callum's side again, wiggling a little as she curling into him, starting with placing her head back in the crook of his neck. Her hand found his waist and she angled her hips back against his side as she entangled their bare shins together as well.

"Callum?" She yawned with a twinge of residual breathlessness. He hummed briefly, questioningly, in response, his arm looping around her again. "Stay here?"

"I was planning on it." His fingers thrummed against her side. She grinned at this prime opportunity to tease him some more. She leaned up again to look at him, raising an eyebrow in phony surprise.

"Oh yeah? That's a bold plan to make," she teased, mostly sure that the way his face fell as she spoke was an intentional effort to tease her back. 

"You said you'd stay here like this as long as I wanted, right?" He pouted, his fingers grasping at the loose fabric of her nightshirt over her waist.

"Hmm, I guess I did. And how long will _that_ be?" Her fingers wandered to button the undone clasp at the collar of his pajamas. As they continued, she fidgeted with it, unbuttoning and rebuttoning it over and over.

"Well, I don't know if _forever_ is realistic, but..." He hugged her tighter as he uttered the word _forever_ and she felt color rush to her cheeks imagining an entire _future_ with him, full of uninterrupted peace and unadulterated love and unending affection. 

"That's sweet,” she said, summing up the swell in her heart. The way her heart swelled felt familiar—like the outpouring of emotion after they’d landed back at the top of the spire. Her fingers on his collar stilled. “Callum. I...I was kidding earlier. _I'm_ the lucky one.”

”Rayla...” He knew where she was going, she thought.

“And I know I already said it but—"

"Rayla, you don't have to—"

"Thank you."

"It’s not—“

"I know,” she said with finality. 

“I love you,” was his only response. They were quiet for a long while, hands still as well. She broke the silence first, mumbling the question against his neck.

"Do you want some of my blanket?" He shrugged her head off of his shoulder gently as he readjusted to lay on his side, facing her. She saw the way a corner of his mouth pullled upwards.

"I don't know Rayla,” he drew out the words dramatically. “Sharing a _blanket_? With the girl I _love_? Seems kind of _weird_..."

“Come here, dummy,” she laughed, reaching behind her for the blanket she’d thrown off earlier. She lifted it to float down to cover both of them. He scooted closer and took both of her hands in his. She pulled his hands to her lips and kissed. He smiled before imitating the gesture. She scanned his expression as he settled and found weariness in the puffiness that remained around his eyes and the slightly-less-than-bright way he smiled back at her.

"Sleep?" Callum asked, tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear gently.

"Sleep,” she confirmed. He closed his eyes, and she followed suit.

After a moment, he muttered quietly, the smallness in his tone returning: "Can...can you tell me again?" She scooted a little closer and extended a hand back to rest against his shoulder, curling her other hand underneath her, between her pillow and her cheek. She watched his face as he tried to sleep.

"You’re okay, Callum. I’m okay.” She squeezed his shoulder. “Everything's going to be okay.” She let her hand drift up to brush his hair to the side again. “We're okay. I'm right here, and I’m okay. I'm not going anywhere." She pulled his hand back to her lips again and didn’t release her grip this time. He hummed in appreciation as she finished her first recitation.

She kept his hand within a hair’s breadth of her lips and repeated the mantra over again, punctuating the sentences with tiny kisses against the back of it. Eventually, his fingers slackened against hers and she let her own eyes close, mumbling her last repetition lazily before drifting off herself.


End file.
